Here they go: OK Go hits video treadmill

August 09, 2006|KELLY-ANNE SUAREZ Los Angeles Times

You wouldn't think watching four grown men climbing, kicking and sliding in power pop tempo across eight churning treadmills would be so satisfying, but it is. The Chicago band OK Go has a minisensation on the Internet with the low-budget, high-impact music video for its song "Here It Goes Again," which shows the delightfully geeky members performing an intricately choreographed routine spread over eight exercise machines. The effect is Busby Berkeley goes to the gym with a Cheap Trick soundtrack. Within 48 hours of its posting on You Tube (www.youtube.com/watch?vpv5zWaTEVkI) on Aug. 2, the video had a half-million hits. Those familiar with OK Go may be taken aback to see geeky, bald bassist Tim Nordwind mouthing lyrics ordinarily sung by Damian Kulash, the group's self-proclaimed "token cute boy." Nordwind is OK Go's lead lip-syncer, Kulash says: "It makes it more ridiculous." That's also the word for the coy glances and showgirl kicks from Nordwind (looking not unlike Paul Giamatti) while his mates keep it deadpan. And that intense look in their eyes isn't showmanship. "We were scared for our lives," Kulash says. "Especially anything that required us to lie down -- you can get caught between the two treadmills and get eaten alive." The idea for the video was hatched by Kulash's older sister, Trish Sie, a ballroom dancer and also the choreographer of their "A Million Ways" video a few years ago, which showed the guys sashaying like the Backstreet Boys.